“I’ve attended COPS’ Spouses Retreat three times and I’m already registered for the one this September. Since Rick was killed. I’ve had to be both mom and dad to our four kids. Spouses Retreat is the only time I get to cry. There I can open up with the one group of friends who really, truly know the pain that never leaves my heart.”
But I can also laugh and know I won’t be criticized. I don’t have to edit what I’m feeling. People talk about closure, but there is no such thing. How can you forget the man you were married to and had kids with? You can heal and you can love again, but you can never, ever forget hearing the words that changed your life and turned it upside-down. COPS and the Spouses Retreat help me stay right-side-up.”
- Julie Weinhold, surviving spouse of St. Louis County Police Officer Richard Weinhold, end of watch 10-31-2000
“Hey Daddy, I miss you so much. I just got back from camp. It was full of kids about my age. This camp saved my life, Dad. I used to think I was alone and I didn’t think any other kids my age felt the same way. I came to realize that there are kids that feel the exact same way! I am so happy I went.”
- a surviving child’s note to her slain father after she attended “C.O.P.S. Kids” Summer Camp 2005